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Activists Kick off Price Nomination Hearing with Over Half a Million Petitions Exposing Price’s Anti-Woman Record

January 18, 2017

Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, January 18, abortion access activists gathered on Capitol Hill to deliver over half a million petitions opposing the nomination of Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Advocates for Youth, All* Above All, American Federation of Teachers, CREDO, Housing Works, MomsRising, MoveOn, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Council of Jewish Women, National Physicians Alliance, National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Physicians for a National Health Program, Public Citizen-Knievel, and UltraViolet delivered signatures from people across the country who want to hold him accountable for his extreme positions and opposition to abortion access and birth control coverage.

Rep. Price, an anti-abortion zealot who does not believe any woman has struggled to afford contraception, will go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) full committee hearing at 10am.

“Trump has vowed to dismantle Obamacare and defund reproductive health providers – and Tom Price is the one he’s chosen to implement this extreme agenda. As Secretary of HHS, Price could interfere with science-based policymaking and use his position to interpret and implement the law in ways that discriminate against women and deny us the health care we need. Price has been unabashed in his 1950s view of women: he even denied that any woman has struggled to afford contraception.

“Representative Price doesn’t think we should have insurance coverage for birth control or abortion–particularly if a woman is poor. He wants to take away Obamacare, and all the groundbreaking benefits and protections it brought to women. And he wants to take away our ability to make our own decisions about abortion. The Secretary of HHS is charged with oversight of our nation’s health programs – yet Price has spent his career ignoring or attacking healthcare for half the population – women.

“This nomination is yet another step in the Trump-Pence agenda to shame, bully, and punish women, and we will be BOLD in saying ‘no’ to that agenda.”

Joint statement from organizations who gathered signatures:

“As organizations that represent millions of individuals of all backgrounds, immigration status, incomes, needs, and hail from different geographic areas, we firmly oppose the nomination of Rep. Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services. His commitment to dismantle historic health reform and leave more 30 million without health insurance would hurt those who already face systemic barriers to care including women, men, young people, people with disabilities, senior citizens, people of color, people in rural areas, LGBTQ people, and people with low income. We can’t go backwards and we won’t go backwards.”